How I Met Your Brother
by stev71
Summary: Let's say Tadashi and Honey Lemon were a thing. How did they meet? What was their story? This is the hypothetical history of Honey Lemon and Tadashi Hamada, from Honey's point of view.
1. Chapter 1

Honey Lemon sighed as a tear rolled down her cheek. She grasped the picture tightly between her fingers, stroking his face with her thumb. It was surreal that just days ago she was enjoying the company of her best friend, her love. The single tear instantly transformed into a steady stream as she sobbed over the picture. She wiped her face to prevent her tears from getting the picture wet. The thought of his kindness, generosity, and undying care for her and everyone he loved made her smile through her tears. Losing him was such a painful thing, but the memories they shared warmed her heart.

"I miss you, Tadashi."

There was a knock at her door. Honey sniffled and wiped her face, trying to stop crying. "Come in," she said weakly.

"Hey, Honey," Hiro Hamada said as he slipped through the door and closed it quietly behind him. He was taken aback by her tear-filled eyes. "Sorry if I caught you at a bad time… your mom let me in."

"Oh, not at all, Hiro!" Honey Lemon said, feigning a smile. She looked down at the picture, placing it back on her nightstand.

Hiro hesitantly brought her into a hug. "I've been missing him, too," he said softly. Honey Lemon squeezed him back tightly.

"Thank you, Hiro," Honey sighed. "I needed that." She wiped her face, feeling better instantly. "I know I shouldn't be this much of a mess after six months. I don't know what got into me."

"Don't worry, Honey. It happens to all of us. It's totally normal." Hiro smiled in reassurance.

Honey half giggled. "Yeah." She stared at his face for a while, examining the shape and the features. It hurt how much he looked like Tadashi. She loved Hiro; he was one of her best friends. But every time she looked at him she thought of Tadashi. She was so proud of Hiro and what he had accomplished in the last half a year. The impression his older brother left on him was something incredible. Tadashi's drive to care for and protect others had transferred to his brother, and for that, Honey Lemon could only smile. Though Tadashi was gone, she knew that his spirit lives through Hiro and, of course, Baymax. "Tadashi is here."

Hiro's eyebrows raised, as if he looked concerned, but he soon realized Honey was just trying to cope. It was something that helped Hiro get through the loss immediately after it happened. "So, Honey," Hiro started. "You never told me how you and Tadashi met and, you know… became a thing. Tadashi would never tell me. He would just turn every shade of red and try to change the subject to his latest school project.

Honey giggled, fondly remembering her first—and last—moments with Tadashi. Honey paused, trying to recall everything. "Oh, gosh," she continued. "Where do I start? I guess you could say it all started on my first day of school at SFIT…"

I walked into a huge room, apparently called the 'nerd lab.' This was the go-to place for working on projects and inventions, and getting feedback from other students. A spunky, black-haired girl named GoGo was giving me a tour of the lab, showing me all of the latest tech innovations and projects the students were working on. Of course, my forte is chemistry, but I was fascinated with all of the different types of science these guys were doing!

My gaze stopped at a boy across the room, who looked to be half Asian and half white. He wore a black baseball cap, with black hair underneath. He was working on some kind of robot skeleton. I guess GoGo noticed me staring at him, because she leaned over and whispered, "That's Tadashi Hamada, or as most of us call him, the Hamada Heartthrob. Don't even bother with him. He's too busy with his robots for girls. Trust me, I've tried."

That was kind of disheartening, to say the least. Even though he seemed deeply concentrated on his robotics, I doubted he would shut people out. I decided I was going to try to get his attention.

I casually made my way to the back of the room where the black-haired boy was working, taking notice of the other projects and trying to to seem _too _interested. I came up behind him.

"Hi," I said quietly, poking my head over the table he was working at.

"Hey," he said curtly.

"So, uh… whatcha working on?"

"It's kind of complicated," he said, keeping his attention on his work. "I'm not sure you'd understand… are you even in the robotics program?"

Obviously this was kind of, I don't know, offensive? He didn't leave a very good impression, that's for sure. _Great_, I thought. _Another rude, insensitive, sexist jerk_. "I'm a chemistry major, thank you very much, and I graduated at the top of my high school class with a 4.9 GPA. No, I'm not in the robotics program, but I doubt I'd have the slightest amount of trouble understanding." That's when he finally turned away from his robot and looked at me. Goodness, if he wasn't attractive. As much as he seemed judgmental and brash, he gave me butterflies when he looked in my eyes.

"I'm sorry, I—" he began, but I cut him off and walked away.

"Save it. Good luck with that robot of yours."

I didn't even turn around to see his reaction.


	2. Chapter 2

I took my lunch box and looked around me, searching for an empty table. I spotted GoGo sitting alone. Might as well sit with her. She was the only person I felt comfortable around here.

"Hey, GoGo," I said, sitting down across from her.

"Oh hey!" She said with her mouth full. She hurried and finished chewing her sandwich, wiping her mouth and then taking a sip of her drink. "So… how's SFIT treating you?"

"Well," I sighed. "I see what you mean about that boy. He wouldn't even give me the time of day."

"You tried to talk to him?" GoGo laughed, reaching into her bag of chips. "You should've listened to me, girl. He's way too caught up in his work to give anyone the time of day. The only person I've ever seen him talk to is his brother."

"I don't know what I was thinking. I just thought maybe I'd have a chance. Ugh!" I placed my hands on my head. "But why is he so cute?"

GoGo paused mid bite of her sandwich. She looked out into space above and to the right of me. I turned around. Of course, there was Tadashi, standing right behind me. He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Mind if I sit down?" Tadashi said, half smiling. I turned back around and looked at GoGo, desperate for help, obvious in my facial expression. She wasn't much help.

"So!" she said, standing up and packing up her lunch. "I've got a thing, like…" she looked at her watch, "now. So, bye, Honey!" She walked past Tadashi, acknowledging him by simply muttering, "Hamada."

Tadashi sat down in her place without invitation. I guess it wasn't a bad thing, but I was still ticked at him for belittling my intelligence.

"She's never really liked me," Tadashi said with a laugh. He pulled out a bento box and a bottle of soda. "So your name is Honey?"

I chuckled nervously. "Honey Lemon. But I go by Honey." I glanced at another table where two girls were glaring at me. They turned around as soon as they noticed me looking.

"Alright, Honey." Tadashi said, then sighed. "Look, I came over here to apologize. I know I offended you, and that wasn't my intention. You're obviously a seriously smart girl if you managed to get into SFIT. I've just been… stressed lately. I shouldn't make excuses, but that's the reason I reacted the way I did. So, if you want to know about my project, I'd be happy to take you to my office and show you my plans."

I stared blankly. Shoot. He seems so nice _and _he's cute? What am I getting myself into? "Sure," I said. "Yeah, I'm curious." He smiled. "And I accept your apology." His smile grew.

Tadashi scanned his hand, and two metal doors slid open. We stepped into his own private office. "Whoa." I said, amazed. All around the room were schematics and drawings of what I assumed were ideas for robots Tadashi had. Judging by these, his mind was full of some pretty amazing and creative stuff. "This is amazing."

"Thanks," Tadashi said modestly. "Professor Callaghan let me use this space for my final project. He said great ideas deserve quiet spaces for the mind to work at its best."

He turned around and I was sitting in his office chair, spinning around in circles while looking at everything around the room.

"These drawings, these plans… they're incredible." I said, awestruck.

Tadashi laughed pretty hard, shaking his head. "And that's my chair where I sit for hours and try to get ideas to come from here, to there," he pointed to his head and then a large piece of paper on his desk. "Sometimes I sit upside-down. You know, to look at things from a different angle. I've found that helps a lot."

I twisted and shifted my body so my vision turned upside-down. I noticed a piece of paper that was on the floor. I followed my vision along a path of crumbled up papers that led to a trash can full of more crumpled up papers. I adjusted myself to a normal orientation and stood up. "What are these?" I asked curiously, picking up one of the pieces and unfolding it, examining what was draw on the page.

"That's exactly what I've been working on for the last, oh, month or so," Tadashi said.

"Concepts?" I asked, looking at several of the drawings. They all looked somewhat different from each other, but they were all the same general idea. It was a large, kind of humanoid robot that looked like it would give great hugs. "Baymax," I read at the top of each page. "What's Baymax?"

"Baymax," Tadashi began, leaning against his desk and folding his arms, "is going to change the world. He—well, it—is going to revolutionize the healthcare industry someday."

"And how do you think it will do that?"

"By creating a personal healthcare companion that will attend to every need of the sick, injured, or elderly. Whenever they emit a sound of distress, Baymax will activate and come to their aid."

"Wow," I was astonished. "It's such a great idea, but it seems so… complicated."

"Exactly," Tadashi sighed. "It's still in the concept stage. I'm not sure he'll ever see the light of day, but that's the goal."

"You can do it."

Tadashi's eyes brightened and he smiled. "Hey… thanks."

His smile caused me to smile, and there was an awkward silence for a couple seconds. Oh, the tension. I hate tension.

"Let's talk about you, Honey," Tadashi said, grabbing a cup from the coffee maker. "Do you want some coffee, by the way?"

"Do you have any green tea?"

"Sure, do you want honey and lemon in it?" he asked, jokingly.

"Yes," I said, not jokingly.

He cleared his throat. "Oh," he said. "So that's where the name, and the thing, and.. ah. I actually have neither honey nor lemon."

I giggled. "That's ok. But you owe me next time."

He put a teabag in a cup of hot water and handed it to me. "So let's talk about you. You're into chemistry, huh? What do you do with that?"

"Well, this is going to sound really awkward, but… I can make a giant ball explode into a cloud of pink dust."

Tadashi was obviously trying to hold in his laughter. "OK, I know what you're talking about, but you phrased it perfectly."

"A chemical metal embrittlement reaction with a large solid mass of tungsten carbide, right?"

I was certainly impressed. He didn't exactly look like the chemist type, but I guess I shouldn't judge appearances after going off on Tadashi for doing exactly that. "You got it. Are you a chem minor?"

"Nah," Tadashi said. "Robotics takes up my entire schedule. But I was pretty into it in high school. I'm interested to see what you're going to do with that reaction."

"I haven't gotten any farther than the giant exploding ball phase," I said bluntly. His smile gave me butterflies.

My phone buzzed at the exact wrong moment that day

"Hello?" I answered. "Yes, mami, I'll be home soon. Yes, I know it's getting late. I'm sorry mami, I'm on my way."

Tadashi looked concerned. He probably heard my dad yelling at my mom through the phone. "Is everything OK?" he asked.

"Yeah," I lied. "I've just got to run home. My parents are just worried about me, that's all. I'll see you later, kay?" Everything wasn't OK. My parents were fighting again. I grabbed my bag and left Tadashi behind in his office.


	3. Chapter 3

I walked up the slanted, hilled sidewalk to my house at the end of the street. I tentatively stepped through the doorway to a quiet house. My mom was the only one awake, it seemed. She was sitting at the table, the only illuminated light in the house above her. She was holding her head in her hands, staring into a steaming cup of coffee. I gently closed the door and joined her at the table, slinging my bag off my shoulders and onto a chair next to me.

"Hi, mami," I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. "Is everything ok?"

She looked up, her eyes obviously red from crying. "I'm fine, Honey. You know how your father gets sometimes."

And I most certainly did know. Despite the colorful wardrobe and bubbly personality that I'm known for, my home life was never as bright. I was raised an only child, with my parents constantly fighting and yelling as I laid in my bed alone, frightened and wishing they would stop. No siblings meant no one to talk to, so the next day, school would be such a sweet escape. My favorite class, of course, was chemistry. It was something I could truly pour my heart and brain into. I loved my family, too, despite the fighting. Unfortunately it continues to this day, albeit not as constant as it used to.

"I'm sorry for staying later at school, I should have been there," I apologized, feeling guilty for leaving her to deal with my dad alone.

"Don't worry about me," she smiled, taking a sip of her coffee. She sighed. "You stayed late studying, didn't you?"

"Actually…" I started, unsure if I should bring up Tadashi. I noticed my mom raise her eyebrows. I knew she would be surprised if I spent my free time doing anything else. _What the heck_, I thought. "I met the sweetest boy today. His name's Tadashi."

"Oh, is he one of the Hamada boys?" she said.

"How'd you know?" I was curious and suspicious that she knew who he was. _How popular was this boy? _

"Their family is such a talented and gifted group of people. At least, they used to be. His parents were always making the front page about some kind of new technological discovery."

_That would explain the robot._

"So," she looked curious. "Is he cute?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Mami!" I giggled, playing with a strand of hair awkwardly. "I don't even know him… But yes, he's definitely cute."

My mom laughed. "Alright, Honey. I won't pester you."

"Thanks." My mother was never the type to embarrass me or question every single detail about my life. I loved her for that. "I'm gonna head up to my room. I think I should get a little more sleep than I did last night," I said, yawning.

"Sweet dreams, darling," my mom stood up and kissed me on the forehead. "Love you, Honey."

"You too, mami." I picked up my bag and trudged up the stairs to my bedroom. I threw the bag on my bed and sat down at my desk. I wasn't _really_ going to sleep this early in the night. I opened the lid of my laptop and opened the internet browser. I decided to check my newsfeed for fun before starting some work when I saw that I had a new friend request.

"Huh," I breathed, clicking on the notification. "Tadashi?" I was surprised that he had looked me up. There was a little message that came with the request. It said: "Hey, Honey Lemon. This is Tadashi… I guess you already realized that, but whatever, I just wanted to see if you were OK. You seemed kind of distraught when you left earlier. So if you want to grab coffee or tea, whatever, just let me know. I'd love to hear about what you're working on. Later!"

I smiled, then hit the 'reply' button on the message. "Hey Tadashi," I typed. "Thanks for your concern. Everything's OK here at home. I just had to run some errands for my mom. I would love to grab a drink with you tomorrow. How does the cafe at 10 tomorrow morning sound?"

I sent the message. It was marked that he read it a couple seconds later, and then he began typing. "Sure, see you then! :)"

My heart fluttered, for sure. I let it end there, and decided I should get to my schoolwork.

I woke up with my face on my laptop, drool dripping from my mouth. I woke up startled, shooting up up straight in my chair. I wiped my face, then yawned and stood up, stretching. Wonderful! I woke up almost 20 minutes late.

"Shoot!" I yelled as I ran to my closet. My I'd forgotten to plan out what I was supposed to wear this morning. I changed my yellow clothes for other yellow clothes (my favorite color!), put on some platform wedges, placed my pink glasses on my face, and grabbed my purse as I hurried down the stairs.

"Morning, Mami!" I said, kissing my mother on the cheek and grabbing a piece of toast that she had already made for me. "Thanks for the toast!"

"Of course, Honey! Have a good day!"

I ran to the door, touched the doorknob, and then hurried back to give my mom a hug. I knew she would need it after last night. "Love you."

I left my house and began my walk to school, putting in my earphones and plugging them into my phone. My walk to school was more of 'dance as I move forward to the beat of the song I am currently listening to.' Did I get weird looks? Yes. Did I care? Uh, no!

As I reached the top of the hill, someone nudged my side. I pulled out one of my earphones and turned to my right.

"Oh! Hi, GoGo! How are you?" I reached out to hug her, but she pushed me away.

"Thanks, but I'm not a hugger," she said bluntly. "I just thought I would walk with you to class. What do you have today?"

"Oh," I said, taking out my other earphone. "I'm not going to class today."

GoGo looked confused. "So.. you're just studying then?"

"Probably later, but I'm just planning on getting coffee."

"Ok, I'm confused." GoGo stopped and crossed her arms. "You're going all the way to SFIT… for coffee?"

"Yeah!" I smiled. "Well, not just coffee. I'm meeting Tadashi there."

GoGo raised her eyebrows and blew her bubble gum. "Oh really?"

"Is that surprising? He just wants to talk about science and stuff. I mean, it is a school about science after all." I laughed awkwardly. She obviously knew that.

"It's a little surprising, yeah. Don't get me wrong, he's super nice and passionate about things he cares about, but I've never seen him take an interest in girls before.

"Oh, that's interesting," I said, looking at my shoes as I walked. "Maybe he's just always been… busy?"

"Exactly. _Always_ busy, either with his schoolwork or with his family. It's just… unusual, is all."

"Well, I mean, we're just sitting down to talk and share ideas. You know, science." I always tried to look at everything with an optimistic lens.

"Yeah, science," GoGo popped another bubble. "Hey, there's my classroom. I'll catch you later, Honey."

I waved as she left and entered the class. I wasn't too sure how to take her commentary. Was she jealous? She told me she had tried to talk to Tadashi before and, apparently, he wasn't too interested. I didn't want to assume the worst in her, but that's the feeling I got from her.

There was the cafe, tucked in the corner of a larger building with classrooms lined next to it. I stopped at the door and took a breath. Why was I nervous? It was just talking with a new friend. Nothing more. I opened the door and heard a 'ding' noise as I walked in. I clutched the strap of my purse and looked around. There he was, sitting at a table with an empty seat across from him.

"Hey, Tadashi!" I said sweetly as I half ran over to the table. I pulled the chair out and sat down, putting my purse on the floor.

"Honey!" he said, his face brightening. "Hey! How's it going? I waited to order until you got here."

"Oh you shouldn't have!" I said, pulling a strand of my hair behind my ears. "Sorry for being late."

"It's only been a few minutes, don't worry about it," he said, smiling. The barista came over with a notepad and pen.

"What can I get you two to drink?" she said, readying her pen to write.

"How about a coffee, black, please," Tadashi said. "And… what did you want, Honey?"

"I'll take a mocha frap, please. Extra whip!"

"Alright, I'll get those right out for you." The barista ripped off the piece of paper, smiled, and walked back to the counter.

"No tea today?" Tadashi joked.

"Oh, you know, gotta get that caffeine boost!" I laughed and crossed my legs under the table.

"I feel that," Tadashi agreed. After a few seconds of silence he started to ask about yesterday.

"So, when you left last night, were you alright? I mean, I thought I heard someone yelling on the phone… is everything OK?" Tadashi seemed legitimately concerned; it showed in his facial expressions and the tone of his voice.

"Oh!" I tried my hardest to sound as bubbly and upbeat as possible. "Yeah, everything's totally fine. My mom was just a little distressed because she forgot something at the store for dinner and I had to hurry and go pick it up for her." Lies. All lies. And I felt so bad for lying right to his face, especially because he truly seemed to care.

"I see," Tadashi said softly. "Well, if everything's alright. I just wanted to make sure you were ok. I mean, I know we just met and all, but you seem like such a nice girl that I wanted to know you weren't in any trouble or anything."

"Pft," I giggle. "Me? In trouble? Nah."

The barista came back to the table with our drinks. "One black coffee, and one mocha frap. Can I get you guys anything else?"

"I think we're good!" I said as I dipped my finger in whipped cream and stuck it in my mouth.

Tadashi laughed. "Thanks." He handed her a $10 bill.

"Wait, are you paying for me?" I asked. "Wait, no! I have money!" I took out $5 and pushed it across the table.

"It's fine, Honey. I've got it." He pushed the bill right back to me.

I sighed. "Fine. But next time I buy _you_ something, OK?"

"Deal."


	4. Chapter 4

"The goal is to eventually reach a ginormous size, like, I don't know… 400 pounds?" I said as I prepared to amaze Tadashi with a glorious chemical reaction that I had been working on since middle school. I mixed various chemicals together to create a chemical compound essential for the reaction.

"Where on earth are you going to get that much tungsten carbide?" Tadashi asked, focused intently on my experiment.

"Well…" I looked up at him as I placed the compound over a burner and heated it to 500 K. "The school is waiting for me to come up with an actual use for this. They said if I could come up with a real-world use, they would be happy to provide me with as much TC as I need. Problem is, I have no idea what something like this would be used for."

"Hmm…" Tadashi placed his hand on his chin.

I took the combined superheated chemicals, poured them into a spray can and sprayed the ball with a tiny pink puff. Then, I attached two a copper clip to the ball. I flipped a switch and a zap of electricity was sent directly into the ball.

"Go on," I said excitedly. "Touch it."

Tadashi hesitated and stuck out one finger, giving me a side-eyed smile. He placed his finger on the now pink ball, and it burst, sending out a small cloud of pink dust.

I giggled uncontrollably. "Isn't it awesome?!" I grabbed his hand and pulled it up to my face, examining the after effects of the reaction, then let go as Tadashi examined it himself. "Ah, the wonders of chemical metal embrittlement."

"Yeah," Tadashi said. "It's pretty sweet, actually. And pink."

"Oh yeah, the pink… it should come off eventually."

"_Should?_" Tadashi's eyes widened as I simply laughed.

"I'm joking, Tadashi! Just go rinse your finger. It comes right off."

Tadashi chuckled and shook his head as he walked toward the sink. "So," he said over his shoulder. "Your experiment basically changes the molecular structure of the tungsten carbide—"

"—Causing it to become brittle and explode! Uh huh!" I interjected. "Imagine what it would be like with a gigantic mass."

"I'd hate to be the guy who tests that out," Tadashi joked as he watched the pink dye run off his finger and down the drain of the sink. He imagined himself covered head-to-toe in pink. "I could see this type of reaction on a larger scale being pretty useful with the amount of energy it generates."

"Right? I know I can do _something _with this. I just don't know what." I sounded discouraged, but I couldn't help it.

"You think you could replicate it with a larger mass?" Tadashi asked, turning off the sink and walking back over to me.

"I mean, I'm sure I could. If it works with this size, I don't see why a larger one wouldn't do the same thing, just on a larger scale.

"Theoretically it would," Tadashi said, picking up another small ball of TC and rolling it around in his fingers. "What do you plan to do with 400 pounds of this stuff, though?"

I sighed. "That's just the thing. I think it would be neat for my final project in a few moths, and I know it could be useful somehow… I just don't know how. You know?"

Tadashi agreed with a nod. "Come with me." He grabbed me by the hand and led me through the lab and down the hallway. He opened the door to his office and took me to to his desk, pulling out his chair. "Go on," he said with a smile.

I sat down hesitantly, unsure of where this was going. "Thanks," I said so softly it could have been a whisper. Tadashi grabbed a folding chair from the other side of his office and sat down next to me.

"Alright," he said, picking up Baymax concept drawings and moving them out of the way. "Let's get to work. This is a pencil."

I giggled. "I know what a pencil is!"

"Then why aren't you writing down ideas?" he said, returning the laugh. I took the pencil from his hand slowly, and unsurely placed the graphite on the paper. Chemical equations, formulas, drawings, and elements soon covered the paper. Tadashi didn't interrupt me until I had filled up the entire sheet.

"There," I said, holding up the paper. "Ideas."

"These are things you already know, Honey," Tadashi said, pointing to various things I had written down. "You need something more. You need a reason for the school to support you."

I placed the paper down on the desk and grunted. "You're right, but my stupid brain's got nothing."

Tadashi leaned closer and placed his finger to my head. "Your brain is not stupid. Your brain is capable of so much." He pointed to the paper. "Look at all this. I don't think I could even come up with half of this stuff."

I smiled. He was right. I did have a lot of talent whether I wanted to admit it or not.

"Alright," he said, standing up. "It's time to look at this from a different angle."

"Do you expect me to sit upside down on this chair?" I asked with a questioning look.

"That's exactly what I expect you to do. Come on, I'll make sure you don't fall."

I stared at him for a few seconds. "You're kidding, right?"

"Does it look like I'm kidding?" Tadashi crossed his arms and smirked. "This will help. I promise."

"Fine," I said curtly. I stood up and took off my platform heels—it might be kind of hard to do this in those. I looked at Tadashi and pushed up my pink glasses, pursing my lips. I placed my back on the seat of the chair, with my legs up the back and resting on the top of the chair. My head hung over the seat as I looked around the room. I felt Tadashi grasp my legs to make sure I didn't fall. I felt safe and secure with him there.

"What am I supposed to see?" I asked. My hair hung down and brushed the ground as I looked in each direction.

"Nothing," Tadashi said. "You're not _supposed _to see anything. Just let it come to you."

_We're gonna be here a while_, I thought. I looked around the office, examining every detail. _There's a robot poster… A couple of computers… a toy car… _

"A car!" I shouted and tried to sit right-side up again. I ended up falling off the chair instead.

"Whoa, whoa!" Tadashi said as he tried to catch me. He didn't quite succeed, though. I fell on him and knocked him over and we both ended up on the ground. This was kind of awkward, as our faces were pretty much inches away from each other.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry, Tadashi! Are you OK?" I scrambled to my feet and grabbed his hand, helping him up.

"Ah," he laughed, rubbing his head. "Yeah. I'm fine. Are you?"

I grabbed my glasses that had fallen off and placed them back on my face. "Yeah, I'm good."

"So, I'm guessing you had an epiphany?" Tadashi smiled and wiped some dust off my shoulder for me.

I looked down at the car I spotted. "I guess you could say that. I'm thinking about vehicles. Maybe not regular, every day vehicles like cars, but maybe something larger like a tank, or… a spaceship?"

Tadashi looked interested. "You think you could use the TC reaction to harness energy…"

"…to power the vehicles! Yes!" I finished his sentence. "I'm not exactly sure how I would go about doing it, but I think that with enough TC and some reworking to the formula, I could cause a reaction that produces enough energy to power a vehicle for a long time."

Tadashi smiled patted me on the back. "Looking at things from a different angle always helps me out. Now we have to see if your theory actually works."

"Thanks for the help, Tadsahi," I said.

"Of course. That's what I'm here for."

Without thinking, I leapt and hugged Tadashi, not realizing what I had just done. He didn't seem to mind, though, because he hugged me right back.

"Uh, sorry," I said, awkwardly stepping back. I realized I was still barefoot, so I bent over to put my shoes back on.

"Why are you sorry?" Tadashi laughed. "Hugging is a good thing."


	5. Chapter 5

About a week later, I walked into the lab and looked around, noticing a few new faces than the last time I was there. There was a group of three people huddled together on a couch, talking and laughing. GoGo was one of them. She saw me come in, and stood up to meet me.

"Hey," she said. "Looking for Tadashi?"

"Uh, not necessarily. I just came to get some work done." I didn't know why she suddenly jumped straight to Tadashi. I didn't want to be known as just another girl who had a crush on Tadashi. Of course, that was pretty obvious, but still. I came to SFIT for science.

"Sure," GoGo crossed her arms and popped a bubble. "Hey guys," she called. "Come over here. I want you to meet the newest addition to SFIT."

"Hi!" I said excitedly. "I'm Honey Lemon, nice to meet you all."

"So do we call you Honey or Lemon?" a tall, African-American guy said. "You can call me Wasabi." He held out his hand and smiled.

I returned the smile and shook his hand. "Honey, Honey Lemon, either one works. Just don't call me Lemon. I'd prefer to keep some sort of sweetness."

"I bet she responds wonderfully to 'Honey.'" A boy with a green beanie said softly, obviously trying to flirt with me. "The names Fred. Or Fredzilla, depending on the day."

"Oh, hey!" I said, not trying to notice the smell emanating from Fred. "Nice to meet you." I clutched the strap of my purse, hoping he didn't want to shake my hand.

"What's your major, Honey Lemon?" Wasabi asked as we walked back to the couch they were sitting on.

"Chemical engineering," I said. "I'm really interested in finding new ways the world can be a safer, healthier, more efficient place. I just want to make a difference."

"You came to the right place," GoGo said. She sat down on the couch and kicked her feet up. "That's what we're all here to do. Take Wasabi, for instance. He's working on a new way to make sushi."

"Laser-induced plasma," Wasabi said proudly. "It'll make slicing and dicing sushi 500 times faster."

"Oooh!" I said kind of loudly. "I love sushi!"

"Don't we all?" Fred commented. "I know of a pretty sweet sushi spot just a few blocks from here, if you ever want to catch a bite, Honey."

"Oh, I would love too! Someday. Maybe," I said kindly, or tried to. "What kind of science are you into, Freddy?"

"Lovin' the pet name. As for the science," he picked up a sign and spun it around. "I specialize in the science of sign spinning. Getting the SFIT word out on the street corners, all that good stuff."

"He's also literally obsessed with giant Japanese monsters," GoGo said, shaking her head.

"Oh, Kaiju!" I exclaimed. "I know exactly what you're talking about."

Fred gasped. "You're into Kaiju?" He jumped up excitedly.

"Well, no. I may have Mexican in my blood, but I'm fluent in Japanese and I'm in _love _with the culture."

"I can respect that," Fred said. "You couldn't by any chance turn me into a giant, fire-breathing Kaiju with your chemistry powers… could you?"

I laughed. "No, Fred. Unfortunately that's not science."

"More like science fiction," Wasabi said. "You'd better just stick to lizard suits."

"Hey, team," Tadashi said as he came out of his office. He noticed me sitting with his friends and immediately his face brightened up.

"Hey, Tadashi!" everyone said. I was silent. I still got nervous every time I saw his face and heard his voice.

"Honey!" he said sweetly. "I'm so glad you met my friends. I was going to introduce them myself but it looks like you're already pretty comfortable with them." He sat down next to me on the couch.

"Yeah!" I giggled. "Your friends are a blast. How's Baymax?"

"Baymax is… Baymax," Tadashi sighed. "Stubborn as usual. You guys wanna grab some lunch?"

Everyone, including me, agreed. We were starving.

"What did you have in mind?" GoGo asked. "I could go for some sushi now that Wasabi brought it up."

"Sushi sounds great!" I agreed. "How about you Tadashi?"

"Sounds like a plan. The usual spot?"

"You know it," Fred said. "It looks like our sushi date is happening a little earlier than expected, Honey."

"Ha ha, Fred," Tadashi said sarcastically.

"Who's riding with me?" Wasabi whipped out his car keys.

"Fred and I will," GoGo said, following Wasabi out the door. It was just Tadashi and I left in the lab.

"Looks like you're comin' with me," Tadashi smiled.

"I'm not complaining," I said with an awkward laugh. I grabbed my chem kit and brought it along with me. I had planned to get some work done, but it could wait until later.

Tadashi and I walked to the parking lot where he pressed a button on his key fob and and _beep_ sound emanated from a red, moped scooter.

"Oh my gosh!" I squealed. "This is what you drive?" I beamed, rubbing my hands along the seat of the scooter.

Tadashi let out a laugh. "Yep," he said. "A real beauty, isn't she?"

"It's so… kawaii! Cute!" I tried to contain my excitement, but really, the scooter was so cute that containment was impossible.

Tadashi blushed. "I never thought I would drive a 'kawaii' vehicle. But hey, it gets me to where I wanna go."

I smiled and nodded.

Tadashi picked up a helmet and set it gently on the top of my head, buckling the straps together. "Too tight?" he asked, holding the sides of the helmet in his hands.

I shook my head. "Just right!"

He strapped his own helmet on and swung a leg over the seat. I did the same, and looked around for a place to hold on. I awkwardly grabbed behind me, clutching the leather seat.

Tadashi looked back with sideways grin. "You can hold onto me, around my waist if you want."

My heart fluttered. I was so close to him now that I was afraid he might hear its tempo rapidly increasing with each second. I scooted closer to him, tentatively wrapping my arms around his waist. My heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest any second. Could he feel it? Was his heart beating fast too? I closed my eyes and grinned as Tadashi turned the key in the ignition, preparing myself for the cool San Fransokyo breeze to dance along my face and my hair.

*click*

"Eh?" Tadashi mumbled under his breath. He turned the key again.

*click*

"Come on!" Tadashi groaned, trying the ignition several more times. He sighed and planted his face in his hands. "Great."

"Do you think it's the battery?" I asked. "Maybe you left the lights on?"

"Could be," Tadashi said. He unclipped his helmet and stood up, tossing it onto the ground. I set mine next to his. "Well, the others are probably already at the restaurant by now." Tadashi looked around for someone in the parking lot who might be able to help. "We'll have to jump it."

My eyes darted around the scooter as I formed a plan in my head. "We could jump it, but…" I trailed off.

"What?" Tadashi looked up at me.

I placed my finger on my chin and furrowed my brow. "Can you take the battery out?"

"Sure," he said, eyeing the access to the battery. "I can just pull it out of here and—"

"Do you trust me, Tadashi?"

"Y—yeah, I do."

I giggled. "Get that thing out. We're taking it back to the lab."


	6. Chapter 6

Tadashi sat on the counter, watching as I darted this way and that around the lab. I pulled knobs, set up various tubes, and, with a heavy sigh, heaved the scooter battery onto the counter. After attaching a couple pieces of equipment, I stepped back and analyzed the setup.

"Uh, Honey..?" Tadashi said, obviously confused.

"It makes sense, doesn't it?" I said, taking off my glasses and rubbing them on my shirt. Tadashi jumped off the counter and stood next to me, staring at the mess of equipment on the table. "I mean, the battery needs and energy, right?"

Tadashi furrowed his brow, trying to make sense of my concoction. I giggled—he looked cute when he was confused. It wasn't something you saw often from Tadashi.

"Energy…" Tadashi mumbled, "that we can get from jumper cables." He sighed and sat down in an office chair, spinning around and staring at the ceiling.

"I thought you said you trusted me," I said, crossing my arms. He stopped spinning and stared at me, then got up.

"I do trust you," he said, walking toward me. "Alright. Do your thing." He leaned against a counter opposite the one I was working on, and watched as I opened my kit. I pulled out something small, but the look on his face confirmed that this was much more than jumping a battery. "Tungsten carbide…" he said, a smile creeping across his lips.

"Yeah!" I half yelled, half laughed. "Tadashi, this could be what I need to prove to Professor Callahan that I belong here." I took the tiny ball of Tungsten Carbide that I held in my hand and placed it into a container, which was connected to two tubes: one that would receive the drop of solution, and one that would transfer the energy to the battery. If all worked as I thought it would, we could have this battery up and running STAT.

I pulled out a dropper, suctioned some of the special solution into it, and dropped a tiny amount of it into the tube that led to the TC. In a matter of seconds, it exploded into a ball of pink smoke, and that smoke was sucked through the tube leading to the battery.

"How will we know if it worked?" Tadashi asked, leaning in close to watch the reaction happen before his eyes.

"Well…" I said, waiting for the last bit of smoke to be transferred into the battery, then removed the battery from the tubes. "We take it back to your scooter and try it!" I smiled a big, toothy smile and placed the battery into my kit.

"Sounds good," Tadashi grinned. "Just give me a sec. I've gotta grab my wallet from my office."

"That would be good to have!" I said, following him down the hall. "I guess it's a good thing your scooter died then, huh?"

"No kidding," Tadashi laughed."

Tadashi and I walked down the main promenade of SFIT, which was lined with dozens of blossoming cherry trees. The pink petals fell gracefully from their branches, landing beside our feet and fluttering back up into the air with each step we took. I looked down at my feet, and then at Tadashi's—we were walking in time with each other. The petals swirled around us, encompassing our feet in one tiny whirlwind of pink. _Why can__'__t these beautiful petals engulf us? Why can__'__t they bond together and form our own personal cyclone, one that would separate the two of us from the rest of the world? Just carry us off into the sunset, little petals. _

Then I remembered that merely wishing for something, hard as you might, doesn't make it happen.

Tadashi initiated conversation. I didn't know how much more gushy, lovey dovey stuff my heart could take. "Why Tungsten Carbide?" Tadashi asked.

"Huh?" I asked, not fully hearing him. I was still partly submerged in my daydream.

Tadashi half-smiled. "I'm just curious as to why you picked the substance you did. TC is pretty expensive." 

"Oh," I giggled awkwardly, wondering if Tadashi was doubting my idea. "Well, TC, when combined with the materials I showed you, produces a very powerful reaction. Theoretically, with enough TC, one could power… jet engines, power plants, space shuttles… an entire country, possibly. It's a much cheaper _and_ environmentally friendlier alternative than nuclear power or fossil fuels."

"No adverse effects on the planet?" Tadashi asked. If anyone was an advocate for saving the earth, it was him."

"Absolutely none. I've studied the byproducts of the reaction. The only effects would be fluffy pink clouds floating in the sky, eventually dispersing."

"You really know your stuff, don't you honey?" Tadashi seemed impressed. I blushed and beamed at the same time.

_Screeeeeech!_

Tadashi and I glanced at each other before taking off at a run toward the parking lot. That was the sound of tires squealing, and his scooter was the only vehicle in the lot.

"Whoa," I said, out of breath as we reached the parking lot.

Tadashi's eyes searched the entire lot. "I just bought that scooter!" He started sweating. "Not good. How'd they get it started without a battery?"

My heart sank into my stomach. I opened my tool kit and shuffled my materials around. No battery.

"I don't understand," I said frantically. "It was just in here, I—"

"Someone must have snatched it when we were in my office," Tadashi sighed.

"Hold on."

I pulled a pair of glasses out of my purse. These glasses looked like the ones I was wearing, but they were made to increase vision by up to 10 times—an accidental side effect of me going a little overboard trying to craft my own lenses.

"The rubber from the tires was burnt on the asphalt just seconds ago. Whoever has your scooter is close by."

I scanned the perimeter of the lot, hoping to see a flash of red zooming up or down one of San Fransokyo's hilly streets.

"There!" I saw Tadashi's scooter zipping out of the parking lot and out onto the main road. I giggled when I saw following the scooter, coming out of the exhaust pipe, a trail of fluffy pink smoke.

We took off at a sprint toward the road and waved down a police officer. Conveniently, there was one sitting right outside the entrance to the school.

"Officer!" Tadashi shouted, running up to the car and poking his head into the window. "That scooter was stolen from me, the one that's shooting out pink smoke." He pulled out his license to prove that the scooter belonged to him.

The officer glanced at the license, then at the pink smoke that flew past his window. He rubbed his eyes, then took Tadashi's license, scanning it. The red scooter appeared on his display, indicating that it indeed belonged to Tadashi.

"Get in, kids," the officer grumbled, buckling his seat belt and starting the engine. He flipped his sirens on, taking off before we had even closed the doors. The officer floored it, weaving in and out of traffic, avoiding collisions here and there.

I kept my special glasses on, making sure not to lose sight of the scooter in case the officer did (he didn't. I was amazed at his driving skills).

"You do this a lot?" I called to the driver.

"All the time, kid," he yelled back. "But most of the time it's without pink smoke flying at my windshield."

The police cruiser was neck and neck with the scooter now—it was right outside my window. Without hesitation, I threw my purse into Tadashi's lap and rolled down the window.

"Hold my legs!" I shouted to him, grabbing at the frame of the window for a place to hold on. Then to the officer, I yelled, "Keep it steady! Stay even with the scooter!"

"What?" Tadashi yelled. "Are you crazy?!"

"Possibly!"

Yep, I was crazy. I leaned out of the car and frantically tried to grab the driver. _Shoot! _I thought. I stretched farther _He__'__s too far. Just a few more inches__…_ _Yes!_ I grabbed a piece of the driver's leather jacket, pulling myself closer to him. He glanced over at me and groaned, grabbing my hand hard, trying to pull it off. With my other hand, I reached for the driver's helmet, scratching at it, hoping I could at least get a look at the driver.

"Honey!" Tadashi yelled. "I'm pulling you back in, there's a motorcycle coming up. It's gonna hit you!"

"No!" I called to him. "Just hold my legs!" I glanced at the oncoming traffic. Sure enough, a motorcycle was about to split the police cruiser and the scooter apart. Quickly, I let go of the driver and turned around, pulling the upper half of my body onto the top of the police cruiser. We zoomed past the motorcycle. _That was way too close_.

I flung myself back onto the driver of the scooter. "Come on already!" I shouted. "Give it up!"

"Not in a million years!" He yelled back at me. "Your tech is way too valuable to just 'give it up.'"

I was stunned. Someone was stealing my tech, and I had no idea why. With an angry groan, I grabbed underneath the driver's helmet and ripped it off, exposing his identity. He looked at me with dark, angry eyes. He had spiky black hair and a large, down-sloping nose. If only I had access to my phone I could snap a picture of his face, but before I had time to reach for it, he grabbed back at his helmet, successfully retrieving it. He placed it back on his head and kicked me off of him.

"Honey!" Tadashi yelled, pulling hard at my legs.

I screamed as Tadashi pulled me back inside the car, just before we zoomed right past a city bus.

"I saw what he looked like!" I said frantically, out of breath.

"You almost got yourself killed!" Tadashi said in a panicked voice.

The scooter pulled ahead of the car again, the pink smoke engulfing the police cruiser. Vision was decreasing by the second. The officer slowed and pulled out of the smoke, and for a second I couldn't see the scooter. My eyes darted across the street. Before I had even seen it, the officer was at full speed again, coming up on a red light.

"Hold on, kids," the officer shouted. "This is gonna get rough."

The scooter zipped through the intersection, completely running the red light. The traffic coming from the cross street squealed to a hard stop, barely avoiding both the scooter and us. The scooter fell out of sight, and seconds later we were airborne—the police cruiser came off the ground as we went over a hill, and just as fast as we had gone up, we came down. Hard. Each of us groaned as the car recontacted with the ground. We braced ourselves, but the landing still hurt. I barely had time to recover before the cruiser had pulled ahead of the scooter and trapped it between another cruiser—backup.

The officer unbuckled his seatbelt and quickly exited his car, carefully approaching the scooter with his hand on his pistol. Tadashi and I peered out the window to watch, pulling out my smartphone to take video in case we needed evidence.

"Get off the vehicle with your hands up!" the officer called, still slowly approaching the scooter. The other police officer behind the scooter got out of his car, and carefully started moving toward the driver.

The driver of Tadashi's scooter was waring a full bodysuit and helmet, so we couldn't tell who it was. Thankfully I had that quick glimpse of his face etched in my mind. The driver slowly stood up from the scooter, and just as slowly raised his arms into the air. In an instant, he threw his arms down and was engulfed in a giant cloud of black smoke. I gasped as the officers drew their handguns and aimed at the cloud, hoping to get a glimpse of the target. It was useless. He was gone.

"What the…" I stammered, my hand covering my mouth.

Tadashi's eyes were wide.

"Well… At least we know it worked."


End file.
